"Art gives us an understanding of place. One of the things an artist does is show us the way each place is beautiful, or awesome, or terrible. I have lived in the same place for nearly twenty years, where I have built my own studio and house. Like the 'One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji,' doing pictures of the same area again and again in the different seasons and times of the day is a way to gain a deeper understanding of a place. Just as it takes a long time to understand the subtleties of an area, I like to make pictures that 'grow on you.' Although realistic, my work is not photographic. Naturalistic is perhaps a better description.

With my woodcuts I am constantly trying new techniques as well as working on the old ones. I try to get the most out of each cut, each color and each block. In this age of the reproduction I believe in carrying on the tradition of the color woodcut, and I enjoy the challenge. I work mostly from memory, creating images of ordinary places at extra- ordinary times, for example, in the rain or snow in the last rays of the sun." A native of Colorado, Carl is a graduate of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he continues to make his home.